Rainbows & Riots I decided to make some art featuring Ethereum symbolism following the recent gains ETH has made against the USD and ETH/BTC. Previously, I somehow came across a town called Toxeth and thought that would be fun to wordplay with so was searching for inspiration from Toxeth when it hit me - the town is actually Toxteth. LOL KEK 555 I am 555art, after all. (๕๕๕ is 5 in Thai script and pronounced like Ha - so: Ha Ha Ha) No problem, let’s make some art by accident 555. I’ve used some images from the town of Toxteth. In researching the town (and finding the ‘extra’ ’t’) Toxteth has been a working class community since the Industrial Revolution and was badly affected in the 1970/80s due to economic conditions and unemployment. These socio-economic conditions and tensions between the police and the black community culminated in the 1981 Toxteth Riots. The black community were often subject to a hardline approach from the police who exploited ‘sus laws’ that allowed a police officer to stop, search and arrest a person if they are suspected of being homeless. Due to the police approach, Margaret Simey, a local Councillor and Chair of the Merseyside Police committee commented of the protestors at the time, "they would be apathetic fools ... if they didn't protest”. Citizens battled police with petrol bombs, bricks and used scaffold poles to charge the police line. Police were ineffective at controlling the riots despite receiving reinforcements from across England. Early Monday morning following the start of the riots, police fired 25–30 CS gas grenades at the rioters and gained control. Three weeks later rioting began again. This time police drove vehicles into the crowd at high speed to break the protestors up. Two police charged with manslaughter were later cleared of any charges. This tactic by police has also been witnessed in the US during 2020 protests against police brutality following the death of George Floyd. No justice, no peace - but it’s hard to take on the biggest gang in town that has unlimited resources - the police. Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxteth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Toxteth_riots Following my research, I was even more inspired to use Toxteth in this piece. Celebrating the success of the Ethereum Network, crypto and a potential blockchain ‘revolution’ as well as reminding citizens across nations, ‘free’ nations, that should we rise up and oppose governments or their policies we are subject to the power of nation states who have shown time and time again they will use police or military to suppress their own people. Crypto gives us a chance to get a little control back. Sovereignty in some privacy, finance and commerce and potentially avoid the use of the systems in place by government and institutions. For all of these reasons I felt inspired that Toxteth is most appropriate for this piece. Whether you are involved in crypto for the money, tech or art, remember this: “We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money” Source: A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html And from Satoshi: “Yes, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.” Source: https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/4/ Crypto is part of the resistance. Toxteth still had more to offer. I came across an image, Day of the Dead (celebrated in Toxteth), that made me fall down a rabbit hole of the The JAMS (The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu) and The KLF. They are a group of artists and musicians that had commercial success for a few years. In a surprise final show, shot blanks from a machine gun into the audience, dumped a dead sheep at the afterparty and deleted their entire catalogue. Later, they burnt £1 million in royalties. Wow. They love a remix too, apparently. Attribution: some images sourced from the internet including Badger Kull - The JAMS (The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu) and The KLF. TEN-K - Stina Jones and Robness Will you be my Vitalik?: Pied Piper Coin TG sticker - likely made by @SkiveTM You can find out more about CryptoChild at: https://www.cryptoartnet.com/cryptoartists/listing/crypto-child/ You can view more CryptoChild creations at: https://app.rarible.com/cryptochild/created https://mybae.io/profiles/CryptoChild https://www.blockchainartexchange.co.uk/artists/cryptochild/ https://opensea.io/accounts/cryptochild Contact CryptoChild: Twitter: xcryptochild Instagram: _cryptochild_